Label:
Columbia Records
Release Date:
19/03/2007

It’s ironic, obviously? The days of Manic Street Preachers being ‘Underdogs’_ in any sense of the expression are long gone. Then again, if this track is indicative of where they’re going with Send Away The Tigers, their new album due in May, then perhaps they’re intentionally working their way back into rock ‘n’ roll obscurity, into the fog of the forgotten.

To be as succinct as possible, ‘Underdogs’ is atrocious, embarrassing and utterly inessential – neither fans nor newcomers should take to it, whatever their past investment, and one-of-three Nicky Wire’s claim that the song’s a return to the band’s halcyon Generation Terrorists days is so far wide of the mark that he must’ve been talking about another record. That or he’s as disillusioned as those who still feel the Manics have something vital up their sleeves.

Unappealingly basic of structure and retarded of lyric – “this is for the freaks,” repeats James Dean Bradfield over ‘n’ over like any freaks out there give a fuck about something so depressingly substandard – this song should be tossed into a pit of starving hungry dogs and consumed like last night’s leftovers. It has no place in the make-up of modern music, regardless of its free download status. You’d have to get paid to listen to this toss.